Differential effects of diet composition and timing of feeding behavior on rat brown adipose tissue and skeletal muscle peripheral clocks

The effects of feeding behavior and diet composition, as well as their possible interactions, on daily (clock) gene expression rhythms have mainly been studied in the liver, and to a lesser degree in white adipose tissue (WAT), but hardly in other metabolic tissues such as skeletal muscle (SM) and brown adipose tissues (BAT). We therefore subjected male Wistar rats to a regular chow or free choice high-fat-high sugar (fcHFHS) diet in combination with time restricted feeding (TRF) to either the light or dark phase. In SM, all tested clock genes lost their rhythmic expression in the chow light fed group. In the fcHFHS light fed group rhythmic expression for some, but not all, clock genes was maintained, but shifted by several hours. In BAT the daily rhythmicity of clock genes was maintained for the light fed groups, but expression patterns were shifted as compared with ad libitum and dark fed groups, whilst the fcHFHS diet made the rhythmicity of clock genes become more pronounced. Most of the metabolic genes in BAT tissue tested did not show any rhythmic expression in either the chow or fcHFHS groups. In SM Pdk4 and Ucp3 were phase-shifted, but remained rhythmically expressed in the chow light fed groups. Rhythmic expression was lost for Ucp3 whilst on the fcHFHS diet during the light phase. In summary, both feeding at the wrong time of day and diet composition disturb the peripheral clocks in SM and BAT, but to different degrees and thereby result in a further desynchronization between metabolically active tissues such as SM, BAT, WAT and liver.